1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to drumstick devices, such as including illuminated tips. More particularly, the present invention is directed to such a drumstick device exhibiting an LED illuminated tip and which further includes an improved compression spring structure for ensuring continuous and biasing contact of a closed circuit established by the illuminating structure in the drumstick during its use, as well as permitting old and worn out batteries to be easily replaced.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A first example of an illuminated drumstick device is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,163, issued to Welcomer, which teaches a drumstick having a tip, a shank and a cap. The tip includes a light emitting diode and electrical leads which connect the diode to a power source housed in a cavity separating the shank and the cap. Threading the cap onto the shank closes a circuit including the power source, an insulating washer, a conductive rivet, and terminals leading to the diode. In use, the threaded and metallic plug portion of the end cap is rotated to an advanced position, contacting the batteries and closing an electrical circuit and causing the light source located in the tip to be illuminated.
A perceived shortcoming of the Welcomer device is the failure to teach or suggest any type of biasing means for ensuring continuous electrical contact between the batteries and the positive and negative terminals of the circuit. It is noted that Welcomer teaches, at column 2, lines 52-55, that a spring could be used to bias the batteries out of contact with one another or with the conductive rivet and that the spring could further be conductive or not, depending on its method of use. Welcomer however does not teach, suggest or intimate as to how such a spring would be configured, located or biased and further does not teach the use of such a spring to maintain engagement, as opposed to non-engagement, of a closed circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,035, issued to Rapisarda, teaches a drumstick with light emitting diode powered by batteries. The drumstick includes a switch using a flexible metal strap over a resilient pad affixed to one end of the batteries. Additionally, batteries may be connected by a thin flexible strap, and the light emitting diode is rectangular in shape and securely held in a channel at the tip of the drumstick. An elongate, threaded and rotatable thumbscrew extends within one end of the drumstick and, upon being advanced to forward-most position, a shaft end of the screw makes electrical contact with the casing of the rearward located battery which, in turn, is electrically connected to the forward located battery.
A detailed review of Rapisarda again suggests that no effective means are disclosed for ensuring that electrical communication is maintained between the batteries and the circuitry, particularly in view of the physical movements which the drumsticks undergo in use. It is noted that Rapisarda teaches, at column 3, lines 7-12, that the flexible metal strap may be connected to the casing of one battery and wrapped around a collector pin of an adjacently located battery and that the batteries may further be secured to the internal cavity by an adhesive such as a poly vinyl acetate glue.
Although effective in limited instances to maintain a degree of continuous electrical contact in the circuitry, the device of Rapisarda teaches against the ability to replace worn batteries (due again to the fact that the batteries are disclosed to be permanently and adhesively affixed to the interior cylindrical wall of the housing). Also, the failure to provide any effective type of continuous biasing between the shaft end of the rotatable thumb screw and the adjacent cathode end of the rear-most battery may still result in breaks to the electrical contact established therebetween. This is due in part due to the tendency of the freely rotatable and threaded thumbscrew to tend to rotate in a disengaging direction during normal use of the drumstick and further due to the absence of any additional structure to ensure continuous electrical engagement.
An additional disadvantage noted by the device of Rapisarda, and in particular its rearwardly extending thumbscrew, is that it does not permit the drummer to strike the drum surface with the rearward, or fat end, of the drumstick and so as to create additional audio and visual effects. The existence of the rotatable switch tab portion of the thumbscrew would, rather, cause extensive damage to the drum, and possibly the drumstick.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,079, issued to Drury, teaches an illuminated drum stick or baton and which is constructed of a transparent material and having an internal chamber for receiving a chemiluminescent material for illuminating the drum stick or baton in a selective and display purpose.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,241, issued to Lucas, teaches a decorative drumstick system with different appearing inserts and which includes an elongate and internally hollowed structural body constructed of a transparent material, into which a rod can be inserted. An insertable portion is provided by an elongated shaft conforming to the configuration of the inner bore. An end cap seals off the inner bore and is screw engaged to the body. The insertable portion is disclosed as preferably including a glow-in-the-dark composition, such as a fluorescent material and which is evident through the transparent outer body construction.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,993, issued to Filippino, discloses an illuminated cane tip constructed of a hard transparent or translucent acrylic material. A battery, light bulb, switch and conducting wires are housed within the tip, which is in turn secured to the attached to an end of the cane by either a knot or slide means.
The present invention is an illuminating drumstick which is an improvement over the prior art in that a biasing means is introduced to the electrical contact established between the internally located power source and the remaining electrically communicating elements of the drumstick and which prevents iterative interruptions of power flow to the illuminating element, such as a light emitting diode, situated at the tip of the drumstick during normal use of the drumstick. The improved drumstick design further provides the features of permitting the user to quickly and easily change the power supply batteries and the configuration of the butt end of the drumstick is further constructed so as to permit the user to safely strike the butt end against the drum surface.
The drumstick includes an elongated body having a hollow interior extending substantially between a tip end and open butt end. An end cap includes an enlarged head and an exteriorly threaded undercut shank portion. The end cap is threadably engaged over the open butt end of the drumstick and the shank portion includes an interiorly extending channel defined within an associated and inwardly facing end for receiving an end of an extending compression/tension spring.
The power supply is typically provided by a pair of watch batteries, or other similar lithium based batteries, each having a positive/anode terminal and a negative/cathode terminal and arranged in an end-to-end stacked fashion. A substantially elongated and cylindrical shaped housing receives the batteries through an open inserting end and is in turn axially inserted through the butt end of the drumstick. A metallic and electrically communicable stud extends from a further selected end of the housing and communicates the negative terminal of the power supply with the L.E.D., such as through a first wire extending therebetween.
The threadably engageable end cap and biasing spring provide, in combination, a circuit which is selectively openable and closable with the positive terminal of the power supply and by virtue of the end cap being threadably engaged or disengaged to selectively move the spring, by contact with a clip ring, either into or away from biasing contact with the anode terminal. The cap and spring are both constructed of a metallic composition, to thereby provide the required degree of electrical communication, as is a metallic and likewise communicable clip ring mounted about an exterior annular surface of the insertable housing, proximate its open inserting end. The batteries may again be easily replaced simply by unscrewing and removing the end cap, and associated spring, and by tilting the drumstick in a direction to cause the batteries to be dispelled from the device.
Upon threading the end cap to a closed and spring biasing position (corresponding to an xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d position) the circuit is closed with the positive terminal, by contact with the electrically communicable clip ring, and current is allowed to flow through the spring, end cap and clip ring. A second wire extends from an extending finger of the clip ring to the L.E.D. and completes the closed circuit. Rotation of the end cap in an opposite, and unscrewing, direction causes the end cap to be displaced from the anode/positive terminal of the batteries and the clip ring, and the closed circuit to be opened.
Additional variants contemplate replacing the coil spring with a suitable leaf spring or other element which provides the necessary continuous and biasing contact between the batteries and the end cap when in the threadably engaged and xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d position. A spring biasing or wave washer may be incorporated between the end cap and the clip to maintain contact therebetween in a screwed/tightened/closed position of the circuit. Also, a transparent or translucent covering material may be applied over the L.E.D. element, such as a vinyl or durable plasticized material, and which may be color impregnated to give off a desired color during use of the drumstick. It is also contemplated that the L.E.D. elements may be interchangeable at the tip end of the drumstick, such as be first removing the associated covering material, and replacing with a substitute L.E.D. emitting light in a different color of the overall color spectrum.